Curated Rates: Using Relevant Content to Boost Bookings

What are curated rates?

To understand curated rates, we first need to understand what curating means. To curate something means to organize and display content in a meaningful way for a particular result. For our purposes here, “content” will be defined as the booking availability response from your hotel to your guests.

This request and response interaction is what happens to your guests when they come into your internet booking experience; they give you information about their travel search, and you respond with relevant content.

So, the concept of “curating” rates revolves around being able—from all of the booking information that is available to show or “present” to the guest at that moment—to curate from that information that which is most relevant to the guest.

A Common Situation

Imagine that you have multiple offers for your guests as they search, depending on your revenue strategy, and these offers all have certain discounts off your best available rate (BAR). You might have an advanced purchase rate where they get 10% off. Or a discounted rate based on length of stay at a 12% discount. Or you may have an email campaign promotion aimed at previous guests for a 15% discount.

But what happens when someone, for whom ALL these criteria apply, is browsing on your site? Traditionally, they end up having to wade through often long lists of available rates, deciding on their own what their most relevant rate (content) might be. This puts the burden squarely on the guest, which can prove to be a frustrating experience at best, and one that leads to increased booking abandonment at worst.

A Unique Solution

In contrast, the concept of curated rates is to remove this burden from your guest by using your technology to “loop” through all these lists and sort out and present to your guest the most relevant offer. This looping and sorting should be something you chose, such as by rate, sort order, or price. Your revenue strategy will determine your best choice.

But whatever way you set it up, the point of curating rates is this: We have a short amount of time spent at our websites, equaling a small window of opportunity from each guest, and we’re competing with a LOT of other sites. So, being able to use technology to more quickly and more accurately loop through what is the best offer for your guest can only work to your advantage because it works to your guests’ advantage—resulting in a better booking experience for them and a fuller booking experience for your hotel.

About Estella Hale

Estella Hale joined Whiteboard Labs in 2006 to focus on support for WindsurferCRS. After the merger with Sceptre in 2012, Estella became the Product Manager for WindsurferCRS and was responsible for all aspects of product development, product support, systems operations, and client management services in relation to that product. Most recently, Estella has been named the Vice President of Products for SHR and will continue to oversee development and support for all SHR products in that capacity. Prior to joining the company, she worked in the hospitality industry for several years, managing implementations and support for a hotel representation company. Aside from managing a Client Services department, Estella has worked in several roles in guest and internal services at major hotel chains. Estella holds a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara and an Associate’s degree in Computer Animation from the Art Institute of Houston.